


The Dreams, They’ve Come

by afteriwake



Series: All's Fair [13]
Category: CSI: NY
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, Literal Sleeping Together, Love Confessions, Nightmares, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 15:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12171438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: The bad dreams finally hit, and all he can do is try and soothe them away.





	The Dreams, They’ve Come

**Author's Note:**

> So here's another fic in the series! An answer to one of the many prompt communities I was part of when I was in this fandom (AU table, "Dreams" prompt).
> 
> While it's not graphic violence, I want to warn that in this fic she does talk about a nightmare involving the person who hurt her doing more damage, so if that's triggering please skip this.

He’d been expecting the dreams for a few days now, and when they hit he was ready for them. She’d been tossing and turning in bed, whimpering in her sleep and then she sat bolt upright and cried out. He’d already been sitting up, and she turned to face him, wincing as she did. “Don, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “Didn’t mean to wake you up. I know you have to go in early tomorrow.”

“I was kind of waiting for it to happen,” he said. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to sleep all the way through the night once you got off the heavy duty pain meds.

She crossed her arms, running her hand without the cast on up and down her arm. “I just…I just…”

He reached over and pulled her close, letting her bury her face into his shoulder as he rubbed her back. She didn’t cry, but he knew she might not do it at all. She was tough like that, he knew that, but part of him wished she would so she could just get it out.

“In the dream, he got the gun. And then it shifted so that I was tied up. And then it shifted again that I’d broken my leg. And then it shifted _again_ so that I was locked in there with his body and my cell phone didn’t work and I couldn’t get out,” she said, her voice muffled because her mouth was nearly against his bare skin.

“But you got out,” he said. “You got the gun and you were able to walk out of there.”

“I know, but I just can’t stop thinking about it. When I’d doze off while you were at work it would come up. And that’s why I was taking so many of those pain meds because I would sleep without dreaming.” She pulled away again and looked at him. “Maybe you should sleep out on the couch or something. I’m just going to keep waking you up.”

“You really want me to sleep out on the couch?” he asked. “’Cause I will if that’s what you really want.”

She was quiet for a moment and then shook her head. “I really want you here. I’m just worried you’re not going to get enough sleep, and then you’ll be in a life or death situation and you’ll end up on Sid’s autopsy table.”

“You’re even more shaken up then I thought,” he said, pulling his arms away from her and using his hands to frame her face. “Listen to me, Jess. I’ve had a lot less sleep some days on the job, and been in risky situations, and been _fine_. You don’t have to worry about me. If anything, you should let me worry about you for a while.”

“I don’t want you to worry about me,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to do that.”

“I love you, Jess. I’m going to worry about you until you’re a hundred percent again, physically and mentally.”

Her eyes widened slightly. “You love me?” she asked quietly.

He blinked and then grinned. “Wasn’t exactly how I’d planned to tell you, but yeah, I do.”

She pulled his hands away from her face and put her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer. “I love you too, Don.”

He grinned and held her close. “That’s good to know,” he said in a thickened voice. He felt a tear drop onto his back and he pushed her away slightly, seeing that she was crying. He reached over and wiped away the tears. “Hey, you don’t have to cry,” he said.

The tears continued to fall down her cheeks. “When I saw him with the gun the first thing I thought was that I was never going to get to tell you, never get to know if you loved me too,” she said. “That’s what gave me the will to fight back. I had to tell you. I had to know. And then when I was at the hospital and everything I just couldn’t say it because I thought you were angry at me and if you did love me you wouldn’t tell me.” 

“Oh, God, Jess,” he said. This time he pulled her close again and let her sob on his shoulder. “I don’t care how angry I was, if you’d told me I would have told you back. Just because I was scared out of my wits doesn’t mean my feelings for you changed.”

“I know, and it’s so stupid that I thought that,” she said, the tears beginning to fall less frequently. “I should have just told you the minute you crawled into the hospital bed with me.”

“Hey, but you told me now,” he said. “So now you told me and you know I feel the same way. Doesn’t matter that it took a few days.”

She pulled away after a moment, wiping the tears away with her left hand. “I know,” she said, a small smile on her face. Then she leaned in and kissed him softly. “Tell me again?”

He laid back down, pulling her down with him so that she was slightly on top of him. “I love you.”

Her smile grew. “I love you too,” she said, leaning in and kissing him again. After a moment they both began to forget about bad dreams and early shifts and just lost themselves in the kiss and the closeness of the person they loved.


End file.
